Topps Basketball Cards Return for the 2025-26 NBA Season
Licensed basketball cards return to Topps
For the first time in 16 years, Topps released licensed basketball cards! The 2025-26 set is the first fully licensed Topps basketball cards since the 2009-10 season. The flagship set returned with a bunch of new designs, parallels, and chase cards. Topps also included throwback inserts and designs that honor iconic Topps basketball cards from the past. Here is everything you need to know about the 2025-26 Topps Basketball release.
2025-26 Topps Basketball: What to Expect
Topps’ first flagship set in 16 years, which was released on October 23, 2025, brought a lot of excitement to the hobby. 2025-26 Topps Basketball has team names and logos on cards for the first time since the 2009-10 Topps Basketball set. Fanatics now has exclusive licensing rights to produce NBA cards. Panini previously had these rights from 2010 to 2024.
2025-26 Topps Basketball cards were released in four formats: hobby, jumbo, blaster, and mega. Hobby boxes come with one autograph or relic card per box, while jumbo boxes guarantee one autograph and one relic. Each comes with additional parallels, inserts, and short prints. On the retail side are blaster and mega boxes. Both retail versions offer exclusive parallels, inserts, and additional 1980-81 Topps Basketball insert cards.
Before this new licensing deal with the NBA, Topps had begun producing a few basketball products featuring NBA players in recent years. However, those products did not have team names or logos. They featured players in blank jerseys, with only their team’s city listed on the cards. These included Topps Finest, Topps Inception, Topps Midnight, and Topps Cosmic Chrome. Now that Topps is fully licensed again, collectors are looking forward to even better versions of these popular basketball card products.
What Are Some of the Best Cards in the Set?
Cooper Flagg and Victor Wembanyama are the two hottest names in the set. Flagg, the top overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has his first flagship rookie card in the set. Even though Wembanyama isn’t a rookie, his first licensed autographed card as a professional is in 2025-26 Topps Basketball.
One of the autograph sets generating the most buzz is the design honoring the 1980-81 Topps set. Current players have both Base Autographs and Chrome Autographs inspired by the unique 1980-81 set. For an even rarer chase, there’s the line of 1980-81 Topps Basketball Triple Autographs. Look out for on-card autographs from the first, second, and fourth picks in the 2025 NBA Draft: Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and Kon Knueppel.
There are also a few 2025-26 Topps Basketball case hits! Short-printed (SP) case hits include All Kings, Hardwood Stars, Hidden Gems, and Class of 25. Comic Court and Home Court have even longer odds, with Topps listing them as super short prints (SSP).
Honoring Retro Topps Basketball Cards
Besides the autographs that recognize the 45th anniversary of the 1980-81 set, long-time collectors might also recognize new versions of past Topps basketball cards. The first is a non-autographed insert of 1980-81 Topps Basketball. One memorabilia set that gets a refresh is Own the Game. These cards were a staple of early 2000s Topps sets.
Topps also honors inserts from four past basketball releases in the 2025-26 set. The first one is New School, an insert from 1997-98 Topps Basketball. No Limit and Rise to Stardom come from 2000-01 Topps Basketball. Clutch City Prospects is from 2006-007 Topps Basketball, while Generation Now is from 2007-08 Topps Basketball.
2025-26 Topps Basketball Adopts Iconic Topps Baseball Designs
Baseball card collectors who also love basketball will see a bunch of familiar designs in 2025-26 Topps Basketball. The base card design for 2025-26 Topps Basketball is the same as the base set in 2025 Topps Baseball. There are also a handful of variations that are familiar to baseball collectors, like Number Variations and Team Color Border Variations.
As Topps does with their flagship baseball sets, the base set in the basketball one will include 1/1 First Cards and short-printed Golden Mirror cards. The 1/1 First Cards have a special stamp that indicates that the card was the very first copy printed. The Golden Mirror cards include a photo variation, as well as a gold Topps logo on the front and a gold design on the back.
There are also a handful of inserts that baseball collectors will recognize, including Stars of the NBA, Power Players, and 8-Bit Ballers. The short-printed All Kings is a play on baseball’s All Aces. Case hits that cross over from baseball to basketball are Hidden Gems and Home Court.
Collect 2025-26 Topps Basketball Cards Now
Topps basketball cards make their long-awaited return with 2025-26 Topps Basketball! Try your luck at pulling Cooper Flagg’s first Mavericks rookie card or Victor Wembanyama’s first official autograph! Visit the AA Mint Cards online store to get your 2025-26 Topps Basketball box today.
